Ogilvy Brisbane appoints Ben Lightfoot as managing director
Former Facebook executive Ben Lightfoot has been appointed managing director of Ogilvy Brisbane.
Lightfoot joins Ogilvy following a year as Asia Pacific head of large advertising marketing for Facebook.
The new Ogilvy Brisbane Team (L-R): Ewan Pettit (senior strategist) Phil Nobay (executive creative director), Ben Lightfoot (managing director), Jane Young (general manager), and David Fox (Ogilvy Australia CEO).
He will replace Russ Vine, who led Ogilvy Brisbane for 18 months, following the merger of local shop JuniorCru with Ogilvy Australia.
According to his LinkedIn, Vine is currently consulting.
Across his career, Lightfoot has worked as group CEO of Publicis and Saatchi & Saatchi in Indonesia for almost two years, and as CEO of McCann Worldwide Group Singapore for four years.
He has also worked on a number of boards, including Singapore Chairman of Effie Worldwide, executive council member of the Institute of Advertising Singapore, and as a board adviser for Keep New Zealand Beautiful.
Ogilvy Australia’s CEO David Fox said appointing Lightfoot was part of a push to ‘future-proof’ the agency.
“Ben’s background with Facebook is ideally placed to take Ogilvy Brisbane into its next phase of growth, and matches the focus other Ogilvy offices have had in relation to digital, strategy, media and creative,” Fox said.
“He’s also one of few within our industry to hold senior roles in both creative and management across brand, retail, direct and digital. Having someone of his calibre and broad experience makes him the ideal candidate to take our Queensland presence to the next level.”
On the departure of Vine, Fox said: “Russ has been a committed leader and we wish him all the very best for the future. He leaves Ogilvy Brisbane in good shape and firmly integrated into the broader Ogilvy Australia structure and we thank him for his commitment.”
Lightfoot said he was “impressed” by the way Fox and the Ogilvy leadership team in Australia were “challenging business structure, culture and best practice.”
“With the strong relationships already in place with Queensland Government as well as the new partnerships that are forming through recent wins, I’m looking forward to bringing the experience of my last few years to build on what is already a very strong team,” Lightfoot said.
Lightfoot starts at the Brisbane office immediately and will report directly to Fox.
congratulations and good luck Ben
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